Posted on 03/21/2009 6:45:53 AM PDT by vadum
She refused treatment multiple times. Hardly something you can blame on any system of medical care.
If you had bothered to read the article, the Dr. was lamenting that the necessary equipment ( CT Scnner or MRI ) and rapid transport via helicopter was not available from the hospital WHERE SHE WAS ADMITTED to a trauma center. She may have survived the sub-arachnoid bleed with moderate to minimal brain damage if she got the level of care required for her injury.
She did not, because the system did not have the tools, expertise or transport available.
Thus the system contributed to her death.
Initial refusal of care is common, especially in heart attack sufferers. The 2 1/2 hour drive was also a contributing factor. She refused medical care, but where? On the ski slope? On the drive to the hospital? We don't know.
My point was that when you go to a ski resort, know what the options are. Take responsibility, regardless of whether it is a social medicine situation or not. Blaming Canada for her death is a real silly argument. She fell, hit her head and rejected immediate treatment. Perhaps her death will at least open some eyes to what can happen to anyone.
How many places have a helicopter? There are places here in Colorado where a chopper may not even be possible due to weather and if possible would still be a 2.5 hour round trip flight. I fly these mountains and there are few days where it is possible.
If you want an MRI or CT scanner, you’d better be in the Denver or Springs metro areas.
I hate socialized medicine, but to try to lay blame on the system for her death is overreaching.
I’d bet plenty on the acquiring of a helicopter after this fiasco contributed to this prominent woman’s death. Natasha was *driven* to a “hospital” only 1 1/2 hours *by ambulance* where they were unequipped to remove her blood clot. What???!!! Then, while en route to the next hopspital, 2 1/2 MORE hours away, her brain was destroyed. This would not have happened in the U.S.
As far as her refusal of treatment, it cost her 20 precious minutes wlile on the slopes. The cruel fact remains that Quebec is ill-equipped to handle critical care, and undoubedly contributed to Natasha’s death. Where is all the tax money going for health care if the system is virtually useless for trauma transport?
“This would not have happened in the U.S.”
Well, it does happen. Don’t let your blind ambition of keeping socialized medicine out of this country think we are somehow perfect. We, at least, will allow any company wanting to operate a helicopter service to do so, but we don’t have 100% full coverage at all times. I know from personal experience that life flights are not always available, everywhere, around the clock.
Also, don’t go spouting that somehow because I disagree with your assessment of our own situation that I am somehow for that commie medicine crap, I ain’t. I am just saying she died far more because she refused early treatment than because no one could help her. People die every day from minor head injuries right here in the US smack dab in the middle of every one of our cities. Even if she had received perfect medical treatment she still could have died.
Her death was due to her receiving a blow to the head, not from failing to receive medical treatment. They have helmets in that part of Canada, don’t they? A simple helmet would have saved her life, yet, people want to think the “government” should have done something. They scream the government should require helicopters and MRI machines. Why the Hell would anyone go do high risk sports knowing they might not have a way out if they need medical care? How about taking personal repsonsibility and say that if Canada doesn’t have choppers and MRI machines they aren’t going?? Nope, we’d rather scream the government should have done something. Well, they did: They gave the Canadians the socialized crap they voted for. I highly doubt if she had invited you to go skiing with her there you would have asked such questions about their medical system.
MRI’s are a pretty common part of head injury investigation in the US now.
As it is, cost specialists here complain that we use the MRI machines too much “because we have them”.
Although we’ll probably never know for sure whether or not socialized medicine played a part in the tragic outcome, the mere discussion of such a possibility is a useful talking point for our side in the battle against importing nationalized health care to the United States.
CodeToad, did I say that you were for Commie crap or that I think our system’s “perfect”? Of course not. Whether she had had a stroke, bumped her head on a coffee table or fell on the ski slopes w/o a helmet, the fact is that Quebec is ill-equipped to handle a trauma like hers.
BTW, here in the NE US, we had an extremely icy winter, and I know numerous people who broke bones, including my mom. I’ve yet to see anyone around Scranton wearing a helmet, though our chances of injury on ice were at least as great as Natasha’s on that beginner slope. It was a freak injury.
No medical system can be ideal for every eventuality. Our medi-vacs may have been transporting a burn victim when another critical injury occurs, e.g. But since Canada pays taxes up the wazoo for health care, are they focusing their dollars on egalitarian “wellness” programs at the expense of critical care? Or are the pols just siphoning the money? Doesn’t the fact that she was taken to a place called a “hospital” where they could not even remove a blood clot strike you as sickening? I find it such. Cordially, Bob
Thanks justiceseeker93.
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